


129 Ways to Get a Husband

by reyloxsw



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Best Friends, Best Friends For Life, F/M, Finn gives Rey a magazine, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, No Angst, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey Solo, Rey does everything except from talk to Ben, Reylo - Freeform, Romantic Comedy, Short Story, a reylo love story, ben solo isnt an emo for once, hux is a cat, light and fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26028295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reyloxsw/pseuds/reyloxsw
Summary: Now Rey Johnson was definitely not one to live her life based off of horoscopes and magazines. She never had been. Yet, her current situation definitely makes her regret ever taking Finn's advice - well, advice from a McCall's 1958 article, supplied by Finn.But just when she's lost all hope, the magazine seems to work it's magic... kinda.From a twitter prompt, based off of a McCall's 1958 article on 129 Ways to Get a Husband, believe it or not.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	129 Ways to Get a Husband

**Author's Note:**

> Rey’s father is Korkie Kryze, her grandmother is Sabine Kryze and her grandfather is Obi-Wan (yes, we all know Korkie was their secret child).  
>  She lived with her grandparents after her parents died in a car crash, until she went to college, and moved in with Ben. You can make up who her mother is, to fit your imagination :)

Now Rey Johnson was definitely not one to live her life based off of horoscopes and magazines. She never had been. Yet, her current situation definitely makes her regret ever taking Finn's advice - well, advice from a McCall's 1958 article, supplied by Finn.

But just when she's lost all hope, the magazine seems to work it's magic... kinda. 

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Rey quite frankly was losing her mind.

Ben Solo had to be the dumbest, most oblivious, incognisant man that she had ever met. For seven years now, SEVEN YEARS, she had been subtly dropping hints to get him to understand that she is utterly head-over-heels for him. And ever since this shoddy, old magazine came into her possession, her efforts had doubled with seemingly half the effect.

The first 30 ways were completely useless, simply because she had already found her 'eligible man' and had been stuck with him for the last 16 years. Though, if she were looking to find her own bachelor, she was unsure as to how sitting on a park bench to feed pigeons, or an extremely, overpriced bicycle trip through Europe would have helped. And so she quickly began her quest of zooming through the next 99 ways to get Ben to even notice her feelings towards him.

**_Step 31 - Stumble when you walk into a room that he's in_ **

Then and there, Rey was ready to protest and give up on this stupid gimmick, because _how in the hell_ , was tripping over a rug supposed to grab his attention and 'let him know she was there'? But hey-ho, she never did things half-heartedly, (and was quite desperate, not that she would admit that), so she went all for her fake stumble.

Though, the fake stumble, combined with her complete misjudgement of how far away their coffee table was, and General Hux being the pesky feline he was - she actually tripped, gained all of Ben's attention, and a nasty gash on her forehead. At least she got her TLC from Ben, and inadvertently completed step 34, with a lovely backstory to go with it.

**_Step 45 - Laugh at his jokes_ **

_Easy_ , Rey had initially thought. All she had to do was laugh when it seemed like he was making a joke, right? She didn't actually have to understand it.

Well, no it wasn't easy, she soon found out, and for a multitude of reasons.

First of all, Ben Solo didn't do jokes. He was more of a witty humour, laced with sarcasm kinda guy. What Rey didn't realise, was that you don't exactly laugh at sarcasm. So it was safe to say that her bursting out into a raucous laughter any time Ben drawled out a few words, gained her a couple of... odd looks.

Secondly, laughing at jokes you don't actually understand can lead to a series of awkward conversations. So, when Ben made a joke about some movie series called Space Battles and Rey had the nerve to laugh, he started asking questions, not realising that in reality, she had never watched his favourite films and spent half the evening in the bathroom googling as much as she could before it got too suspicious.

**_Step 50 - Practice your drinking with your woman friends first_ **

Maybe, this rule was better suited to someone who wasn't pining after her roommate and had his number on speed dial, to pick her up whenever she had passed the line from tipsy to completely wasted.

So, with Ben carrying her over the threshold, she told him he was 'a sexy motherfucker' and promptly vomited all over his shoes.

In any case, she could count that as step 54, 'telling him he was handsome'.

**_Step 59_** was thrown completely out of the window and would have been whether she was talking to Ben or the queen of England.

There was no goddamn way that she would **'watch her** vocabulary'!She was born a potty mouth and didn't show any signs of stopping.

**Step 64** told her to buy a full length mirror. She smashed it four weeks later. Seven years of bad luck added to her life seemed like nothing right now. At least she knew she had some sort of luck on her side.

**Step 76 - Double date with a gay, happily married couple - let him see what it's like.**

At this point, Rey was simply convinced that it was her that was defective, and not the tawdry steps. After suggesting that she and Ben have lunch with Poe and Finn, she was feeling wholly confident that this would work.

And dinner seemed to be going smoothly, for everyone except her.

She had somehow become a fourth wheel (if that was even possible?), as the boys bonded over their joint interests of football and, unfortunately for her, Space Battles.

So after a quick trip to the bathroom that consisted of splashing her face with water and pressing it against the radiator, she came back saying she was 'sick'. Yet, told Ben to stay with the boys because he 'seemed like he was having fun', and sped back home before he could get two words in edgeways.

She would have assumed, with his state and the ungodly hour that he 'snuck' back into their apartment, the boys went to a bar. And suddenly, she sympathised with Ben when he had to deal with her drunk, as he threw up into the vase that his mother had given to them two years ago.

**78 and 79** were perhaps the easiest things on the entire list.

Leia had always been like a mother to Rey, claiming her as the 'daughter that she never had.' Rey, in turn, always looked to Leia as her mother, since her own died when she was younger.

She had always bought Leia birthday gifts, and had the date of her birthday engraved in her mind so she would never forget.

As for the baking side of things, Rey would never dare to forget making strawberry pancakes with Ben when they were 8. Though, it consisted more of her and Ben stealing the strawberries and eating them, rather than actually making pancakes. Leia still put up with them every Sunday, when they made pancakes together, even though she lost more strawberries than she could count.

Ever since, Ben became the chef in their relationship (the Skywalker family recipes were a force to be reckoned with after all), and Rey became the professional taste-tester for all of Ben's dishes.

**Step 94 - Don't discuss your former boyfriends**

Boyfriends. Boyfriend. Singular.

Rey's one ever boyfriend happened to be Poe, and it was more of an experience rather than a relationship. Rey had stayed single since, and Poe found out that he was well and truly gay, for Finn nonetheless.

Of course, there were a mass of guys who had liked Rey. Though she never exactly understood why, she didn't consider herself immensely attractive. Once they realised that she showed no interest in them at all, most all of them backed off. If not, a few words with Ben would do the trick, aggressive negotiations seemed to always work in her favour.

**Step 103 - Learn to play poker**

Either Ben Solo was an extremely good poker player, or Rey was absolutely trash at it. She had a feeling it was a combination of both.

She was guaranteed that if they were actually playing and betting money, that by now she would be in crippling debt and would have to work until she was 90 just to pay it all off.

———————

Rey had 19 Wild Ideas left and considering the last 110 were completely useless. She was willing to try anything to get Ben's attention.

**111 - Go to Yale**

**112 - Get a hunting license**

**113 - If your mother is fat, tell him you take after your father. If he's fat too, tell him you're adopted!**

**114 - Stow away on a battleship**

Right now, stowing away on a battleship seemed 10x more likely than getting Ben Solo to ever reciprocate her feelings.

Maybe she should just ship herself back off to England, curse the queen and finally change her name.

**115 - Rent a Billboard and post your picture and telephone number on it**

General Hux passed over the magazine and purred, calling her attention to that idea.

But the thought of passing her face printed 20x larger than it actually was, where everyone could see it - made her cringe quite frankly. And she was left wondering if any of these ideas actually worked for women back in 1958.

**116 - Paint your name and number on a roof and say, "Give me a buzz, pilots."**

**117 - Start a whispering campaign on how sought-after you are.**

A whispering campaign? What the hell was a whispering campaign? Was that just a fancy way of saying start a rumour?

She might as well tell Rose from work to start a rumour that she was infatuated by Ben Solo. Though, upon second thought, it wouldn't be much of a rumour considering it was completely true.

**118 - Sink a fashionable beach at high noon!**

**119 - Ride the airport bus back and forth from the airport**

**120 - Bribe Ferris-wheel operators to get you stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel**

**121 - Stand on a busy street corner with a lasso**

Was this a thirst trap for people with cow girl kinks? People back in 1958, she had decided, were crazy if this even worked.

**122 - Carry a camera and ask strange-handsome men if they would mind snapping your photo**

**123 - Ask your mother to take in male boarders**

**124 - Make and sell toupees - bald men are easy catches.**

This one made her giggle, the thought of Ben walking around with a shiny, bald head was amazingly hilarious to her. Though, the thought of him without his hair in all of its glory, did make her lips pull downwards slightly. Then again, his hair was too perfect, maybe he was bald, and that was a wig? She would have to ask later.

**125 - Advertise for a male co-owner of a boat**

**126 - If you see a man with a flat, offer to fix it**

**127 - Carry a tow chain in the trunk of your automobile**

**128 - Let it be known in your office that you have a button box and will sew on bachelor's loose buttons**

**129 - Don't marry him if he has too many loose buttons!**

Loose buttons - weren't they deranged people? Perhaps Rey was a loose button. She sure did feel like one, what with years of pining after the same guy.

After months of trying these infernal rules, she was on the edge of hope.

Maybe, it was time for her to give up. Maybe, it was just better for her and Ben to be best friends. Maybe, she didn't need-

"Rey?"

The sound of Ben calling her as he walked into her room snapped her out of her thoughts, and all of a sudden she was catapulted back to square one.

She hummed softly, to let him know she had heard him, as she pretending to busy herself on her laptop. All of a sudden, her bed dipped down, notifying that Ben had sat, and a small smile lifted her lips.

"Ok so," he started, before pausing as if he was expecting her to say something until he continued.

This, made her look at him and catch sight of his cheeks, tinged a light pink. She shut her laptop and tossed it to the side,

"Spit it out, Ben."

"Right ok, so," he let out a shallow breath before starting,

"I like you Rey, I have since we were 7. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing this. And I don't mean I like you, well I do like you, but not like that. No wait, I mean I DO like you like that. Like, I like you as more than that. God I'm saying like too much. I _love_ you Rey. I always have, and I always will, and I have no intent to stop loving you, simply because I don't think I ever will stop loving you. I know that I will never stop loving you. Because you're fucking perfect and, well, you're you. And, that's enough for me. And I know I'm not perfect, I mean I'm a bloody mess quite frankly, and there are so many other guys out there that deserve you a whole lot more than I do, heck no one deserves you, you're too good for everyone. And oh my god, I'm talking too much. Shit, I knew I shouldn't have done this."

There was a heavy pause as Ben caught his breath, and raked a hand through his hair. Rey sat on her bed, mouth agape, and quite frankly, confused as fuck.

"Fuck, I know you don't feel the same way," he was more composed this time, "But, I needed you to know that I love you Rey."

He offered her a meek smile, but upon realising she wasn't going to say anything stood up to leave, "Erm, I think I'll go now?"

Before she knew it, she was on her feet subconsciously gravitating towards him, and pulling his face down to her level.

It took Ben approximately one point three seconds to realise that Rey was kissing him, and another one point three seconds for Rey to realise that he was kissing her back. Overall, it took two point six seconds for her to entangle her fingers in his hair, and for him to wrap his arms around her waist.

Until she pulled away, grinning like a fool,

"By the way Ben," she whispered, "I love you too."

And after another 3 seconds, she had been pushed down onto her bed, with Ben on top of her, startling a very confused General Hux.

"By * _kiss_ * the * _kiss_ * way, * _kiss_ * Rey. * _kiss_ *," he pulled away grinning, and pulled out a magazine, that was wedged under her back.

"Why were you reading about 129 Ways to Get a Husband?" 

**Author's Note:**

> Have I actually checked and edited this? No  
> Am I going to? No  
> Do I care? No  
> Hotel? Trivago
> 
> In all honesty, enjoy the story darlings x


End file.
